The Iowa West Foundation recently launched a program to celebrate some of the athletes from Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County who have achieved national recognition in various sports. Twenty-four athletes were recognized as inaugural members of the new Council Bluffs Professional Sports Roster. Each honoree is recognized with a banner that will be permanently displayed at the Iowa West Field House in Council Bluffs. Writer and researcher Brian Mainwaring contributed much of the material used during the induction ceremony and now shares those insights and career highlights in the latest episode of our podcast. The episode highlights the sixteen Professional Sports Roster inductees whose careers included baseball and football, with additional sports to be featured in a future installment.

Features in this episode: Stan Bahnsen, Jon Leiber, Chris Hatcher, Brian Poldberg, Marti Wolever, Bill Fischer, Bill Drummond, David Wolfe, Ann Kmezich Fatovich, Max Duggan, Caleb Shudak, Brian Ratigan, Thomas Fidone, II, Jake Waters, Al Coupee, Don Chandler.

The sixth and final episode of our “Invisible Excellence” podcast series sees Council Bluffs Unit K’s remarkable wartime experience finally reaching its end. Titled “The WWI Armistice Signed, Unit K/Mobile One Returns Home,” this installment follows the nurses, officers, and enlisted personnel as they first ever battlefield hospital to move along the front lines undertake the protracted journey back to the U.S. and to their respective post-war lives.

This episode looks at some Council Bluffs mysteries that have lingered through the years, yet remain unexplained. Included are the 1977 UFO Crash at Big Lake Park, the gruesome 1926 Keeline murders at the site of today's St. Paul's Lutheran Church, the 1970 Cadillac S&S Medic Mark 1 ambulance in which 495 people died, the librarians' perpetual sitings of Julia Officer at the Carnegie Building and the unsupported staircase, and the legends surrounding the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, better known locally as the Black Angel.

For a comprehensive review of the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, from its planning and construction to the scandal that led to the aborted dedication ceremony we recommend the podcast "The Black Angel's Secret" https://accidentally-historic.simplecast.com/episodes/the-black-angels-secret

Questions, comments and suggestions for podcast guests or topics are always welcome! You can contact us at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org. The Society also has a YouTube channel you may enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BijwKxeirRtL7QLnyfMzg